The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym by Paula Byrne – the 'modern Jane Austen'? | Biography books
Last modified on Thu 8 Apr 2021 05.13 EDT In 1971 the author Barbara Pym was at her day job at the International African Institute when she noticed âMr Câ laboriously attacking his lunchtime sandwich with a knife and fork. Pym made a mental note of the detail before asking herself ruefully, âOh why canât I write about things like that any more â why is this kind of thing no longer acceptable?â Ten years earlier, Jonathan Cape had dumped her after her sixth book on the grounds that her brand of anthropological observation of English social manners was old lady-ish...
Source: theguardian.com